Contact Us

Woman Killed After Construction Pit Crash

A woman has died after she crashed her vehicle into a construction pit. The accident occurred Monday morning. According to Good 4 Utah’s website, the accident happened around 6:45 a.m. around 6700 West New Bingham Highway. The woman was driving through a construction zone when she tried to avoid a construction vehicle making a left turn and swerved off the road. The woman was 28-years-old. Police officials have still not released the woman’s identity. KSL News pointed out that the woman died from her injuries. We express our sincere condolences to the family and friend of the victim of this accident.

With Utah’s continued growth and development, construction projects have become a regular occurrence on Utah roads. In some particular stretches of I-15, just when they finish a project, it seems like they start another one in the same region. These continued updates make it look like certain parts of I-15 are perpetually under construction. This phenomenon holds true for other state roads and highways throughout the state. The orange barrels and shifting lanes can be challenging to navigate.

Unfortunately, construction area accidents are more common than you would think. According to the Federal Highway Administration, a work zone crash happened once every 5.4 minutes in 2015. Similarly, Every day roughly 70 work zone crashes occurred that resulted in one injury. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded that from 1982 to 2014 24,745 individuals (about 750 per year) lost their lives in a work zone crash. A study published by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shows that when work zones have to close lanes, there is an increase in accidents on those roads.

With so much construction, how can you as a driver stay safe while driving in construction zones? We have put together the following list of three simple tips to help you drive more safely.

Reduce Your Speed

This suggestion shows up on many of our suggestion lists. Although there is not an established hierarchy of the safest driving tips, this is definitely among the best ways to prevent an accident under any conditions, but especially in construction zones. In normal driving circumstances, speeding is dangerous because it reduces your reaction time. While you drive, there are unexpected obstacles that you must respond to, for example, someone changing lanes in front of you, a stoplight change, or the driver in front of you slamming on his or her brakes. In construction zone, all of these obstacles are perhaps more frequent and intensified.

When you speed through a construction zone, you are not only putting your life in danger but also the construction workers at the site. Thousands of construction workers are injured each year as a result of people’s recklessly driving fast through a work zone. This danger is one of the principle reasons construction zones have double fines for speeding. These fees are meant to act as a deterrence of bad behavior like speeding.

Drive Alert

As mentioned with speeding, while driving through a construction zone, you must respond to many different things in the road like lanes suddenly shifting. If you are driving while distracted by looking at a phone notification, fiddling with the radio, or looking at the progress of the construction project, you are at-risk for being involved in an accident.

Construction zones use signs and other means to help drivers navigate these areas. For example, orange diamond signs are placed in the roadway to help indicate that a work zone will follow. To successfully navigate these areas, you will need to be alert and aware of these signs. If you fail to see a flagger indicating that drivers need to stop, you could seriously injure someone.

Obey Construction Rules

As indicated, construction zones will have some unique rules that differ from the more traditional rules of the road. For example, typically, construction zones will have a reduced speed limit, lanes changes, or other unusual driving rules. Obey these rules at all times. Studies show that injuries at construction sites increase at night. One reason for such an increase is people will sometimes disregard the construction rules of the road and thereby endanger themselves and others.

Following these suggestions will help you stay safer while driving in construction zones. We do not know the exact details leading to the accident mentioned at the beginning of this article. The 28-year-old driver could have been doing all of these things. However, various drivers fail to obey these recommendations every day. Our attorneys see clients who deal with the devastating effects of an accident. We would like to help you prevent such a terrible event in your life. If you have been affected by the recklessness of another person’s driving in a construction zone, contact The Advocates Law Firm.